The Pittsburgh Penguins are leaning heavily on the principals that developed and built three big league sports facilities in town to plan their new $290 million arena.
Hunt Construction, the general contractor for Heinz Field and old Three Rivers Stadium, is teaming with Pittsburgh-based P.J. Dick to build the Penguins’ new home, pending contract approval, a Hunt source confirmed. P.J. Dick is the lead firm in the joint venture.
In addition, Chris Haupt, principal-in-charge for local architect L. Robert Kimball and Associates, is part of the Oxford Development-Chester Engineers partnership that the Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Sports and Exhibition Authority hired as its representative to develop the arena.
Haupt was senior project manager for PNC Park when he worked for Astorino, another Pittsburgh design firm that helped HOK Sport plan the Pirates’ stadium. HOK also designed Heinz Field.
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| Hunt Construction will team with P.J. Dick on the
Penguins’ new home, pending approval,
a source said. |
The authority will own the 18,200-seat arena and has signed a 30-year lease with the Penguins to be the primary tenant. The building is expected to open in 2010. The Penguins hired Icon Venue Group to act in their best interests to develop the arena.
CATS’ CRADLE: The Charlotte Bobcats have created eight more courtside seats between the two team benches and the scorer’s table at Bobcats Arena that will generate $254,400 in revenue for the NBA team.
Four seats cost $1,000 a game, the other four are $600 a game, and all eight sold out for the coming season, said Fred Whitfield, the club’s president and chief operating officer. The change increases the team’s courtside inventory to 40 seats.
FOR WHAT IT’S WIRTZ: Delaware North Sportservice President Rick Abramson’s memories of Bill Wirtz, who died Sept. 26 at the age of 77, include taking a trip with the Chicago Blackhawks owner to Detroit in the early 1990s, soon after the Palace of Auburn Hills opened.
Abramson grew close to the Wirtz family after serving as Sportservice’s GM at old Chicago Stadium in the 1970s. Wirtz was planning the Blackhawks’ new facility and wanted to see the Detroit Pistons’ layout for the first big league arena to design midlevel suites, putting its highest-paying customers closer to the action.
“Bill told me, ‘This [arena] is the future of sports,’” Abramson said. “But he also thought there were too many suites.”
Ironically, United Center opened in 1994 containing a whopping 216 suites on three levels, 36 more than the Palace, prompting Palace Sports and Entertainment President Tom Wilson to joke that the bigger building in Chicago often reminded him of the “Palace on steroids.”
In recent years, United Center’s ownership, including Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, has consolidated some penthouse suites up top and could tear down more walls to create more group spaces for game-day rentals as the two teams jointly plan additional renovations.
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
